GSP's Wrestling

Zankou said:
His wrestling isn't much like competitive wrestling at all. He has extremely basic shots. They are super basic, executed very well and with great athleticism. But what makes it work is that his striking is the setup. For using strikes as setups, he really has no equal. Other than that, it's just super basic singles and doubles correctly executed by a superb athlete.

Most of competitive wrestling -- the elaborate setups and finishes -- are simply unnecessary in MMA, and he doesn't waste his time with them. For the same reason, he wouldn't cross over to competitive wrestling very well, IMHO.
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i dont think that is completely true

he had a great hip toss versus hughes, a div 1 all american and he has shown some variety in set ups
 
SFCFighter said:
i dont think that is completely true

he had a great hip toss versus hughes, a div 1 all american and he has shown some variety in set ups
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That point about the hip toss is certainly fair.
 
GSP is a "super athlete". His athleticsm is extrordinary. If he set his mind to it he could just as easily master surfing, or, say, ballroom dancing. One of the reasons high level wrestlers do so well in MMA is thier highly developed athleticm. One of the "goals" of youth wrestling programs is to "develop athleticm". When you take, say a 21-25 yo who has wrestled at a high level since he was six years old....that dude is a "freak" (no offence to anyone)...physically. He can learn to do just about anything. The mental drive gained from long time wrestling involvement will translate into this individual "wanting" to be the best at whatever they do. GSP personifies this.
 
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It's because he is so good at shoot boxing that makes his wrestling so great.
 
SFCFighter said:
I know more than a handful of people who had fairly successful college wrestling careers with no high school experience. Some were BJJ guys or Judo guys, but some had zero grappling experience.

Jake Ellenberger wrestled at the division 2 level I believe with zero experience. His brother wrestled while he was a star swimmer in high school. Jake was 21 when he started wrestling and eventually became an assistant coach at the college level.

Darren Uyenoyama was a BJJ purple or blue when he started wrestling in his mid 20's and became a coach.

BJ Penn wrestled at a junior college after he won the mundials and did okay.

Bottom line, if you aren't an athletic beast and want to get good at wrestling, train at a pure wrestling club with wrestlers and work hard. Wrestling is a way harder sport than BJJ and I couldn't see many people developing good wrestling while doing gi BJJ at most schools which barely teach any takedowns at all, and if they do, they teach judo.
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For the most part i agree but i disagree on that bjj is harder to learn it is more complex and more technical, wrestling is very technical harder to drill and harder competition.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
could you please elaborate ?
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He means freestyle and the russian style, much more emphasis on technique and than sudden burst of athleticism into a finish and excellent defensive technique, where ncaa guys are genuinely less technical and more conditioned they almost put less on the takedown and more on riding and reversals hence you end up with guys like jacob volkmann who doesn't look like a wrestler at all. However i think the best style is iranian and cuban, very fast and agressive wrestling and technical iranian more technical than cuban and just as fast, their style is more leg attacks than russians and more offensive perfect for mma, russians are a bit too relaxed and negative, but iranians although freakish athletes tend to have bad conditioning and poor management and organisation.
Obviously this is a generalisation and there are anomalies.
 
Where did he first start grappling?

It seems pretty unlikely that a noob would be accepted to train at an olympic wrestling academy even if he is athletic.
 
Seppuku Sam said:
GSP is a "super athlete". His athleticsm is extrordinary. If he set his mind to it he could just as easily master surfing, or, say, ballroom dancing. One of the reasons high level wrestlers do so well in MMA is thier highly developed athleticm. One of the "goals" of youth wrestling programs is to "develop athleticm". When you take, say a 21-25 yo who has wrestled at a high level since he was six years old....that dude is a "freak" (no offence to anyone)...physically. He can learn to do just about anything. The mental drive gained from long time wrestling involvement will translate into this individual "wanting" to be the best at whatever they do. GSP personifies this.
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You're right about him being insanely driven. Only thing is that he never wrestled in high school. It doesn't exist in Montreal.
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thecreator said:
Where did he first start grappling?

It seems pretty unlikely that a noob would be accepted to train at an olympic wrestling academy even if he is athletic.
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You always need people to throw in such sports, pay your dues and train.
 
He mixes it up on his takedowns better than most guys in the sport. That's really it. He transitions during different strikes and reacts to your mistakes.
 
StevenCrowder said:
You're right about him being insanely driven. Only thing is that he never wrestled in high school. It doesn't exist in Montreal.
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True. Freestyle and Greco wrestling is completely non-existant in Quebec.

Much judo though.

It's all changing with MMA's popularity, though.
 
thecreator said:
Where did he first start grappling?

It seems pretty unlikely that a noob would be accepted to train at an olympic wrestling academy even if he is athletic.
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It's not an Olympic Wrestling Academy it's the Montreal Wrestling Club. Anyone can go but the coach only coaches the guys who are going to compete at a high level. Supposedly George still doesn't get coached but gets in lots of mat time with the guys.
 
KBE6EKCTAH_CCP said:
True. Freestyle and Greco wrestling is completely non-existant in Quebec.

Much judo though.

It's all changing with MMA's popularity, though.
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Right. But any form of wrestling still won't be a staple in school for a looooong time in Quebec.

I meant moreso in comparison to the culture of wrestling in places like the Midwest.
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